 |
 |
Just a couple of suggestions based on the last post. In order to make things as easy as possible for the lecturers, we require our students to submit their work twice - once in hardcopy for marking the other electronically for plagiarism assessment. The latter is via submit.ac.uk, in other words our students upload their own work to the website, we do not. I then use the system in two ways: i) I skim the reports for any assessments getting high scores and ii) I check up on any papers that seem suspicious to me when I mark them. Note that all my teaching is at undergraduate level. Sandy Burkhard Schafer wrote: > Dear Janet > > I trialled it for our LLM some time back and recommended against it, > BUT mainly because of the specific issues of our programme. > > In a "mock essay" for improving essay writing skills, and with a > cohort of 35 students, I asked three to plagiarise in their essay, > the others were supposed to follow guidelines and procedures, and as > there was nothing at stake, I assume they did. > > Nonetheless, the system returned 33 as "potential plagiarism" - law > students simply have to use literal quotes a lot, from court cases and > statutes,and as these are all online, and the system as it then was > did not identify properly cited references (and the particularities > of citing court cases makes this difficult anyway), they of course > all got lots of material highlighted. Of the two who were not so > identified, one would simply have failed precisely because s/he did > not refer to any authorities. The other one was one of my "intentional > plagiarisers" who was really clever. The other three were identified > - but not for the material they had actually plagiarised! By > contrast,I had identified all three unassisted by technology - though > the test was easy for me, and tough on Turnitin: > > One had handed in a translated chapter from a German textbook (cheeky > sod), the other had copied from an article that was only ever > published on paper, and rightfully forgotten, so nobody ever quotes it > in an online document (one of mine, as a matter of fact, double > cheeky sod)and the third had changed the sentences sufficiently to get > away with it. > > Even though the system was free at the time, there were some "costs" - > moving to electronic essay delivery, increased admin also for the IP > waiver form, and for me, I found reading/marking the analysed essays > on screen rather a strain on the eyes, time consuming and difficult. > While none of these costs were prohibitive, the system would have to > have provided more benefits - by marking the essays in the traditional > way, was much faster AND more reliable/efficient in detecting plagiarism. > > Couple of comments: > the newer versions of the system ought to be better, and I was asked > to test it again by my school. If the number of false positives is > deceasing significantly, that would change things. > > The lack of benefits was clearly linked to the nature of the > course,and one of my conclusions was that it is not good to make a > central decision, but to devolve it to subjects or even degree > programs. For instance, if we used essays in the much larger > undergraduate classes, my answer might haven been different: > collaboration more than plagiarism would be the main concern and > turnitin is good for that. For plagiarism, we would expect more of the > simple "cut and paste" variety than from our more sophisticated Master > students, also the issue of plagiarism from foreign language material > would be less of an issue. The manageable size of the master class > allowed me to set more personalised questions which made collusion > difficult, and using essay banks impossible - again, with different > types of classes, this may not always be possible and they may profit > from turnitin as the "second" (or third) best alternative > > As a geek, I'm in theory rather a fan of the system and its > technology, and it helps sometimes to investigate individual pieces > which are already looking suspicious. I do have some concerns > regrading its impact on the sector as a whole, and the potential for > further de-skilling of academics, but that's a different story > altogether > > > Burkhard > > > > Burkhard Schafer > Senior Lecturer > University of Edinburgh > School of Law > Joseph Bell Centre > Old College > Edinburgh > EH8 9YL > [log in to unmask] > 0044-(0)131-6502035 > http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/staff/view.asp?ref=69 > > Janet Gladstone wrote: >> Colleagues, >> >> My Institution (Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College)is >> hopefully commencing a pilot of Turnitin in the near future. I have >> been asked to find out what the practical experience of other >> Institutions has been with this system and would be most grateful for >> your input. >> >> As well as being interested in your general experiences there are >> also a number of areas where we have specific queries: >> >> Do your students have to give permission for their work to be >> electronically scrutinised? >> >> Does electronic submission cause any issues? >> >> Does using Turnitin increase staff workload significantly? >> Have you had any issues regarding Intellectual Property Rights? >> >> Many thanks for your input on this. >> >> Regards >> >> Janet Gladstone >> Senior Assistant Registrar (Quality Assurance) >> Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College >> >> >> >> ************************************************************************* >> >> You are subscribed to the JISC Plagiarism mailing list. To >> Unsubscribe, change >> your subscription options, or access list archives, visit >> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/PLAGIARISM.html >> ************************************************************************* >> >> > > ************************************************************************* > You are subscribed to the JISC Plagiarism mailing list. To > Unsubscribe, change > your subscription options, or access list archives, visit > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/PLAGIARISM.html > ************************************************************************* > -- **************************************** Dr. Sandy Steacy Geophysics Research Group School of Environmental Sciences University of Ulster Coleraine, N. Ireland BT52 1SA ph: +44 (0)28 7032 4242 fx: +44 (0)28 7032 4911 ************************************************************************* You are subscribed to the JISC Plagiarism mailing list. To Unsubscribe, change your subscription options, or access list archives, visit http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/PLAGIARISM.html *************************************************************************